Closure of paper and the like for containers made of paper and the like



Oct. 8, 1940. GAZETTE 2,217,619

CLOSURE OF PAPER AND THE LIKE FOR CONTAINERS MADE OF PAPER AND THE LIKE Filed NOV. 11, 1937 Mas/mu 5. 61425775 AZw/ W Patented Oct. 8, 1940 CONTAINERS MADE OF PAPER LIKE AND THE a Marshall 1'11. Gazette, Boston, Mass.,'assignor to 1 Boothby Fibre Can Company, Boston, Mass., a

V corporation of Massachusetts Application November 11, 1937, Serial No. 173,999

2 Claims. (c1. 229-51) This invention. relates to improvements in closures of paperand the like for containers made of paper and the like.

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It relates especially to 'means for preventing or discouraging the illicit opening of such a container, as for a dilution, adulteration or substitution of contents, while it is carrying food or other substance to market, .and for the giving of notice if such a violation of the package has occurred. The risk that original packages may be thus surreptitiously violated applies to high quality goods, including foods and many other substances.

The invention is particularly useful where the contents to be protected are in liquid, semi-liquid, or powdered form, requiring a tight closure, but it is not limited to such. It can also be' used to advantage with packages enclosing solids in units of moderate size, and for containers which are ventilated. Although it is here illustratively shown as a paper can it is not necessary that the body of the container be a can. When a con tainer is used with a closure embodying the invention, and it can be observed that the outer wall of the package is intact and of full size, and

such contents being a food stuff and being semiliquid; so that both containers and contents must meet specifications of Federal and State health authorities as well as satisfying the requirements of the trade, and of carriers, in regard to tightness and strength of container as well as quality and purity of contents. Containers for scallops are illustrative of use for a food product which customarily is frozen in its container after being packed. Cans of the invention of one gallon capacity are suitable for each of these food products.

The conventional tin can, with friction-held top lid closure, costs so much that it is customary to re-use such cans, notwithstanding the risks, work and expense involved in the repeated retrieving and cleansing of them. Cans made of paper would avoid these objections by single service use, but ordinary paper cans as well as metal are found liable to illicit opening, change of contents, and re-closure so as to look like the original package. The present invention provides a satisfactorily practicable and inexpensive way for preventing such practices, andso for protecting the shipper, the retailerand the consumer in this important respect.

The invention is conveniently used with a container body made of paper or the like material whose cost is so low that it can be abandoned after a single service; and it provides a construc-v tion such that the container cannot be opened without it being obvious that the original seal has been destroyed. The particular part of the con I.

tainer to which the invention applies is the cylindrical mouth of the container body, made of stout paper which can easily be cut. The closure is a flanged disk plug, comprising a hollow shell .of strong paper or the like material which can be set into the mouth by simple pressure; but which is. slightly oversize so that both the plug and the wall of the mouth come flexibly into a, state of internal stress and tightpressure together, which is maintained elastically over a considerable cylindrical area. The cleavage between plug and mouth becomes thereby sealed against passage of air or liquid, as tests have shown. Any infiltration of liquid from contents into the surface parts of the paper at the cleavage causes swelling which by increasing the frictional holding interlocks the plug still more firmly in the mouth. It is a feature that the plug is inserted to a location where its cylindrical flange is wholly within the cylindrical wall of the mouth, and that the plughas no externally accessible abutment facing in the inward direction of the mouth. In consequence no grip or purchase can be gotten for extracting the plug without a destroying or at least a defacing such as will warn the retailer or consumer that the container has been opened.

The container will normally be opened only by an annular cutting of the cylindrical mouth,- cutting oif its portion within which the greater part of the cylindrical plug is tightly set. This permits one to grip the out part and the plug together, for a lifting of the disk closure out of the residue of the body cylinder. The lifted top portion, comprising disk, flange and severed mouth ring, can be afterward replaced, and be approximately liquid-tight, for use as a removable cover during retail dispensing of contents.

When the closure plug is initially pushed into the end of the body, for the initial, sealing of the package, a body of air is trapped within the'body, above the contents. The plug will ordinarily fit the container walls'so tightly that the setting of the closure inward to its ultimate position would compress this trapped air, building up internal a hole through the body wall for escape of air as the closure plug moves inward through the major portion of its travel.- But when nearing its limit portion may be employed. The sealing closure may be a flanged cap cover of usual construction, preferably of paper, or of regenerated cellulosic material stifi enough in body to hold its shape like stifi' paper when formed into a cylinder and crimped like the paper herein shown and described.

For making the closure, the edge of a paper disk is crimped into one end of a short tube of the paper stock. Thus the tube becomes a cylindrical flange to the disk; and the whole is a hollow shell or cup which is to be pressed as a plug, disk-end-first, into the cylindrical rim of the container wall, with the tubular flange of the closure fitting snugly the tubular end of the container, so that the engagement of closure with body, for holding the contents tightly sealed, lies in the considerable cylindrical area in which these two cylinders are tightly in contact together. With this construction any attempt of a person to get a frictional hold on the plug will merely press the two cylinders more tightly together, one of them being integral with the body. If the plug has been pressed inward until the edge of its tube is flush with the edge of the tubular mouth of the body, the grip obtained by a person grasping the two together, pinching both, will not avail to pull out the closure. If any penetrative tool be used to separate the two, the surface or form of the material will be so marred thereby as to give notice of what has beendone, particularly if the tubular part of the shell plug has been mechanically secured to-the tubular mouth of the body or rivets or eyelets through the twocylinders.

A line showing where the body is to be cut is preferably scored or marked on the outside surface, and is preferably opposite the location of the crimp in the plug closure. At that level the multiple thicknesses of the crimp serve as a block for the cutting. The vent hole may be at this same level, and so may provide a convenient starting point for the cutting.

If all pores of the paper are adequately cov ered with a thin coating of wax, inside and out, and the plug-in close-fitting closure is likewise coated, to the extent that some wax peels oi as theclosure is inserted, a sealing which attains or closely approaches air tightness can be realized in ordinary commercial operations. elevation of internal air pressure is a protection for contents, causing the seepage, if any, to be outward rather than inward. If the-container is to be used for frozen products, as frozen scallops, the filling should be only to a height such that a little space, as illustrated, will be left between contents and closure disk, to allow for the expansion of the contents. If for shucked oysters which are not to be frozen, the filling may be closer than is herein illustrated to the .level at which the closure disk will stand.

As the invention applies only to the closure, the body may either have the described impervious- The slight ness of paper, or may be ventilated with'small holes, and may be of any different material or shape, provided only that it is permanently secured to the mouth portion to which the invention applies.

The accompanying drawing shows an illustrative embodiment of the invention, but it will be understood that variations may be ,made.

It is intended that the patent shall cover, by suitable expression in the appended claims, whatever features of patentable novelty exist inthe invention disclosed.

In the accompanying drawing:

Figure 1 is an elevation of a container embodying features of the invention;-a portion being broken away for clearness of showing;

Figure 2 is an elevation, as if taken in section on 22 of Figure 1, but showing the sealing closure pressed through only part of its length into the body tube; and

Figure 3 is an elevation, with portions broken away, showing the upper-portion of the container of Figure 1 after it hasv been cut, and after the closure has been lifted out.

Referring to the drawing, the container body 25 I0 is represented as being made from a helically wound plural ply paper tube, at whose lower end is crimped the edge of a bottom closure disk in a conventional manner. For clearness of showing, the plural ply, structure of the tube' walls is not represented in detail, but is suggested by the curves lines l2 which represent the edges of the helical strip constituting the outer ply. So far as the invention isconcerned, the container body may be of various materials, constructions and shapes, and need not be cylindrical, so long as there is a cylindrical portion of the body walls at the mouth end, of material which can be easily cut, to receive there the cylindrical plug.

Referring more particularly to Figure 2, the sealing plug for the mouth of the body is,there represented as comprising a closure disk [4 crimped as at IS in one end of a short cylindrical tube l8, making a cylindrical shallow shell. This shell may be constructed like conventional flanged cap covers for paper cans, but, insteadof engaging exteriorly of the can it has a snug press fit within the rim. It goes in as an inverted cap, crimp-end first, preferably; and the inward curvature of the wall at'the crimp helps the operator enter it easily, notwithstanding the tightness of its fit.

Assuming that the container of Figure 1 is filled with shucked oysters, or other contents, up to a capacity line which may be plainly marked 5| interiorly as at 20, and assuming there is no vent, the inserting of the closure plug would trap a substantial body of air between the contents and the closure, and the pushing of the plugtto its ultimate position would compress air, building up internal pressure with ill effect by offering resistance to ,the inward travel of the plug and leaving an air force tending to push the plug out and so to reduce the security of its setting.

The invention avoids all of this by providing a vent 22 in the body wall at a place where, during the major travel of the closure inward, it will be open for free outflow of air, but where it will become covered and be tightly closed by the plug as the latter completes its short further 7( inward movement. While the 'plug is moving through this distance the slight compression of entrapped air will be without harmful consequence. The capacity line is distant a little inward from the ultimate position of the face of the plug, this distance depending on what if any provision of interior space is: to be made for later expansion of contents, such as occurs, for example, when contents are frozen, as is usual in the case of scallops.

It is an important feature that the tight seal of I ing the closure tight even though there be some variation in the internal pressure. Eyelets or rivets 24, or glue, may add their mechanical strength to the frictional holding of the flange of the shell plug against displacement along the body wall. However, the frictional holding alone has been found suflicient to prevent an opening of the container, except by gross physical disruption of the paper,-to an extent such that upon any reclosing it would be obvious that the seal had been broken. The eyelets provide a visually obvious obstruction, which is another deterrent to an illicit opening with intended re-closure.

A normal opening of the container may be accomplished simply and quickly by cutting around the body wall at a location opposite the crimp in the closure plug. There the body of crimped stock acts as a block for backing the material which is being cut. A scored line 26 may be provided in the mouth wall for guiding this cutting. The line, as represented, is about three-fourths of the way inward from the top edge of the plug, is below the rivets 24, is above the topsurface of contents, and passes through the body .vent 22, which thus constitutes a convenient starting point for the cutting.

Figure 3 shows the mouth part of a body out on the line 26, with the closure plug and its associated severed portion 28 of the body lifted away.

The part of theplug containing the disk and crimped joint projects below the band 28 of body wall, nicely rounded for easy entrance as'a removable cover in connection with a retail dispensing of contents. The adhering band 28 has then become a part of the flange of the closure. It thereafter constitutes a shoulder on the closure for seating on the cut edge of the main body.

The paper containers thus described can be put to many uses for which metal or glass has heretofore been considered necessary, liquid-tight paper as now known being used. Casein or otherwaterproof adhesive between laminae of, the

paper, and waxing on the surface, are, foundto make paper satisfactorily impervious to'moisture and to air. As contrasted with other methods of packing, using tin or glass and a pasted label, the original identifying marks of the makes a closure which can withstand the shocks of shipping and handling, from packer to wholesaler and to retailer. This permanence of holding makes it also sanitary, in the sense of being germ tight. Water in which a filled can'is immersed may be unsanitary, as where water results from melting of river ice, under which filled containers were packed, but the seal of a container embodying the invention protects the contents from contamination by this means as well as by a surreptitious opening for introduction of substitute matter.

The invention thus provides a sealing closure which can be easily made by male or femaleoperative, by hand, without Y need for any supplementary crimping or soldering operation to make it tight and safe against air or liquid inflow or outflow, and against alteration of' contents by human hands, and which after its normal opening can be continued in use as a covered container, for occasional and gradual dispensing of.

end-first within the mouth to a position where its flange is wholly within the container, with the edges of both the flange 1 and 'the container wall remaining exposed, its said flange being intight and broad frictional engagement with the container wall throughout the extent from the said edges of flange and container'wall to the edge of the inserted disk; there being, on the exterior of the mouth wall, a mark indicating a plane located a little distance outward along the axis from the plane of the inmost portion of the closure, for guiding an annular cutting through the mouth wall, at a location where the disk portion of the closure constitutes an interior annular support for the cutting, so that, the section of mouth wall above the plane indicated, when severed, aifords toa person a grip for removing the inserted closure, and affords to the closure,

when replaced, a shoulder for seating on the top edge of the residue of container, between the inmost and outmost portions of the flanged closure, thereby to constitute a plug closure with step-walls. I

2. A container made of paper or the like comprising a container body having a cylindrical wall portion at its mouth, and a cylindrical plug closure therefor comprising a disk and a short tube of paper annularly crimped together in shell-form, said closure being inserted disk-endflrst within said cylindrical mouth with tight flt; said annular crimp of the closure being at a location for and providing a stiff interior annular support for sustaining the mouth wall during an annular cutting; and there being a ring of the mouth wall severed from the main portion of the body, at a short distance outward from the crimp, in direction along the axis, whichv ring having been severed by said annular cutting may be lifted off, together with the plug closure, and with it may constitute a replaceable cover for the container body, entering into and seatable on the residue of the mouth wall. I

- MARSHALL E. GAZETTE. 

